


The Quiet Game

by grimeysociety



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Darcy Lewis Is a Good Bro, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Tumblr Prompt, WinterShock - Freeform, flu season
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-14 16:07:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19276759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grimeysociety/pseuds/grimeysociety
Summary: “Lewis, the apocalypse is happening, would you stop live tweeting about it for ten seconds and pass me that knife? Jesus fuck.”





	The Quiet Game

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SerialObsessor (ibelieveinturtles)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ibelieveinturtles/gifts).



> I... don't really know what this is but try to suspend your disbelief while reading this. I just needed a break from writing constant angst. ibelieveinturtles on Tumblr kindly sent me the prompt _"THE APOCALYPSE IS HAPPENING WOULD YOU STOP LIVETWEETING ABOUT IT FOR TEN SECONDS AND PASS ME THAT KNIFE JESUS FUCK” au_. Thank you for the prompt! This was just a bit of dumb, cutesy fun. Enjoy!

It was the weirdest thing, Darcy being prepared for something for once.

She got her flu shot a few days ago. It hurt, but it was free. She was the first in line to get it, since she had the flu already twice in her life. Darcy even feels smug about it, and then feels she can nag Jane and Bruce about getting it as soon as possible.

It’s one of those ‘I told you so’ situations. A few weeks after her shot, Manhattan is swept by a particularly bad flu and Darcy sees people around the Tower dropping like flies.

She sees a shaking Wanda wandering around the communal kitchen, trying to boil some water for tea. Darcy immediately shrinks away.

“Get outta here, Maximoff! The germs!”

“Everyone else is sick!” Wanda retorts, and she winces. “I won’t touch anything with my hands. My powers are a little off, though –”

“Go to bed. I’ll bring you tea,” Darcy says, coming over and flapping her hands at her, careful not to touch her. “Are you achy?”

“Yeah,” Wanda groans. “Why, do you think it’s -?”

“I thought you said you were getting the shot!” Darcy hisses, and Wanda looks sheepish.

“We were in Atlanta, and then Sam coughed on me mid-flight.”

“Sam didn’t get his shot, either?” Darcy says, eyes widening. “How many of you did?”

Wanda shrugs. “Steve said he didn’t ‘cause his immune system is superior –”

Darcy rolls her eyes. That means Bucky probably didn’t either, which is fine, but she thinks they should have all gone to get it anyway, just to set a good example.

“I’m gonna put in a complaint to someone so it’s mandatory next year,” she murmurs.

Wanda shuffles out the kitchen and Bucky strides in, eyebrows raised.

“You sick?”

“No, do I look sick?” Darcy fires back.

Bucky gives her a glance over and narrows his eyes.

“I dunno, you’re wearing makeup.”

“I’m not wearing that much makeup,” Darcy hisses, slapping his flesh arm.

They watch Wanda’s slowly retreating back and Darcy begins to make a mental list, counting on her fingers.

“If Wanda is sick and Sam is sick, then Nat must be sick which then means Clint is definitely sick –”

She snaps her fingers.

“Was Clint in the vents this week?”

Bucky grabs a beer from the fridge and pops the cap off with his metal thumb, eyebrows hiking.

“He’s never not in the vents, Lewis.”

He pauses, eyes averting as he sips his beer.

“Except maybe now. I think I heard him puking.”

“Nice,” Darcy replies, putting her face in her hands. “So basically, it’s the apocalypse?”

Bucky watches her walk out of the kitchen and he calls out:

“Bit dramatic, ya think?”

“A lot dramatic, baby. You know me better than that,” Darcy yells back, pressing the button for the elevator.

Darcy discovers the good doctors Foster and Banner are also down for the count, so she spends most of her night livetweeting her re-watching _Clueless_.

-

Darcy’s listening to JLo a few days later in the labs, dancing alone and uninhibited when the power cuts and the lights go out.

Darcy pulls the buds from her ears and listens out for anyone.

“Hello?”

She feels her heartbeat pick up and she sees on her phone’s display that the Wifi is down, too.

“Shit.”

She pulls up her contacts and calls Bucky.

“What?”

“Power out where you are?” Darcy asks, and he mumbles something unintelligible. “Hello?”

“I said, yeah.”

He sounds grumpy. Darcy rolls her eyes.

“Can you pull yourself away from your TV for ten seconds to check with Steve if we’re under attack? The alarm should have gone off.”

The call abruptly cuts out and Darcy groans. She doesn’t like being in the dark alone. She’s seen too many movies. She opens Instagram and starts a live feed for the couple hundred people who follow her.

“Bad news, guys. Avengers Tower’s out of power. I’m a poet and I didn’t even know it.”

She bites her lip, glancing around. Her eyes are starting to adjust.

“Generator should be up soon. Hopefully. If I go missing, someone tell my mom in Queens –”

There’s a bang and Darcy jolts, crouching on the floor under her desk. She can hear footsteps and she braces herself, her Instagram broadcasting her almost shitting herself.

“Lewis?”

 _Fucking Bucky_ , Darcy thinks, letting go of her breath and standing up from her hiding spot.

He’s carrying a torch, Steve beside him.

“What the fuck is going on?” she hisses, and Bucky flashes the light in her eyes. “Don’t.”

He smirks for a second before dropping it to her stained t-shirt, his least favourite one, her Yankees one she found at a Goodwill last year. She only wears it specifically him in mind, just to piss him off.

“I told you to get rid of that shirt.”

“It was my only clean one this morning!” Darcy snaps. She squints at Steve. “How’d you get down here? Stairs?”

“Yeah, elevators are out,” he replies, and Darcy can see both men have sweat on their brows. “Lotta stairs.”

They were only halfway down the Tower, the labs in the middle. Darcy bit her lip.

“Does that mean I have to run down, too?”

“Depends,” Steve replies. “If we’re under attack, we might have to hide for a while.”

“Oh, that’s great,” Darcy snaps. “Tower full of enhanced humans and there’s a flu pandemic.”

She narrows her eyes at Bucky.

“Now do you think I was being dramatic?” She opens Twitter and squints. “Why is FRIDAY out?”

Steve shrugs. “Last I heard, Manhattan’s pretty much closed.”

Darcy turns her heel, moving toward her desk drawer and opening it. She lifts up her taser and nods, trying her best to look fierce.

Bucky smirks at her.

“What? I can be dangerous.”

Darcy stalks out of the labs with Bucky and Steve in tow, feeling her heartbeat pick up. She glances at the two men.

“What weapons you got?”

“Guns are in the armoury,” Steve replies, and at the same time Bucky grunts:

“Knife.”

Darcy worries her lip some more.

“Well, one of you will have to be courageous and sacrifice yourself for me, because I’m not trained in any actual fighting.”

“What happened to you being dangerous?” Bucky murmurs, and Darcy feels her face flush.

There’s a distant bang and Bucky and Steve exchange a look.

“Upstairs?” Darcy whispers, and Bucky nods.

“It’s okay.”

He doesn’t convince her and she jumps, grabbing his arm when another bang rings out. Bucky glances down at her little hand touching him but Darcy doesn’t think it’s the time to be embarrassed.

“We need to get to the armoury,” Darcy whispers. “By _we_ I mean you guys, but I’ll tag along.”

Steve lets out a short laugh. “You need to hide, Darce, wait it out.”

“How?”

Bucky meets Steve’s gaze again and Darcy groans.

“What does that mean? Huh? What are you planning?”

“Are you on Twitter right now?” Steve says suddenly, glancing at her phone.

“What about it?”

He shakes his head, rolling his shoulders. He moves toward the closed elevator and places his hands on the metal. There’s an almighty scraping sound and Darcy winces.

Steve manages to pry the doors open and there’s the empty shaft beyond. Darcy gulps.

“You better not be going down there,” she says.

Steve gives a smile. “Not down, doll. Up.”

He sticks his head through and Bucky copies him, glancing up in the dark.

Darcy fires off a tweet in her panic:

_Someone tell the police to look in the elevator shaft if I’m reported missing!!!!_

It’s obvious now that the Tower has been targeted, because the power isn’t out anywhere else in Manhattan, at least that’s what Darcy can determine from her Twitter mentions.

Bucky glances over his shoulder at her, frowning.

“Lewis, get off Twitter. We’re climbing.”

Darcy’s eyes snap to his.

“Hell fucking _no_ , Sarge.”

“You got any better ideas?” he throws back, eyebrow raised. “You’re not staying here.”

“Is that a threat?”

“Yeah. I’ll carry you out of here if I have to.”

Darcy’s face flushes once more, and she’s glad he’s not flashing his torch on her face anymore.

Steve is still looking up the shaft.

“Okay.”

“Punk, be fucking careful,” Bucky says.

Steve takes a running jump and it’s the longest few seconds of Darcy’s life. She holds her breath, waiting to hear out for Steve’s screams in case he somehow miscalculated.

Instead there’s just a distant grunt as he lands, gripping one of the cables. Darcy moves forward, nearly out the elevator door and Bucky throws out his arm to stop her leaning out into the shaft.

“I’m not gonna fall!”

“You sure about that?” he fires back at her, and Darcy narrows her eyes at him.

They both listen out for Steve. There’s a slam in the distance and Darcy gasps.

They wait for several minutes and Darcy feels someone tap on her shoulder and she screams, spinning around to see Steve standing behind her. He must have taken the stairs from another floor he reached.

“Don’t _do_ that!” Darcy yells, smacking his arm. She holds her taser aloft. “You’re lucky I didn’t shock you.”

Steve still smiles at her and then nods at Bucky.

“There’s nothing in the elevator shaft. I think I should go back up, though. Try and reach Wanda.”

“Her powers haven’t been great the last few days,” Darcy says. “But she’s stronger than you still.”

“Good to know,” Steve says, his pride still intact. Darcy likes that he’s not easily hurt by admitting he’s not the strongest Avenger.

Bucky’s torch lands on Darcy’s face again and she squeezes her eyes shut.

“We should hide.”

“We?” Darcy repeats.

“Yeah, can’t trust you to not draw attention to yourself,” Bucky replies. “Steve’ll get the others. There could be aliens.”

“Oh, please. I’ve seen more aliens than you,” Darcy retorts, but she knows he’s making a valid point.

-

They split up again and Darcy does her best to keep up with Bucky. He grabs her by the waist when they’re down a couple flights of stairs because another distant bang rings out.

Darcy has her phone open, firing off several messages to other people in the Tower. Apparently everyone was trying to sleep off their sickness, the power cutting out mostly going unnoticed.

Bucky slams her against the wall and she gasps, her back taking the brunt of it.

“Jesus!”

“Sorry, you’re not that fast,” Bucky retorts, voice low. “Thought I’d move you myself.”

He’s got her in the corner of a hallway, mostly obscured by his own bulk. His hips press into hers and Darcy winces, then scowls up at him in the dark.

“You doing this because of my stupid shirt?”

“Maybe.”

“Get off me,” she hisses, and shoves at him.

There’s another bang and his hand covers her mouth and Darcy wants to bite him.

She tries to not think about being turned on by his rough hands and fails – she feels her face flush and wonders if he can feel the heat in her cheeks against his fingers.

They’re very still for a couple minutes and Bucky glances down to see her phone out of her pocket.

“Lewis, quit it.”

He takes away his hand and Darcy hisses:

“Twitter might save us.”

“How?”

“Wanda follows me. So does Clint.”

“Barton has Twitter?” Bucky asks, and there’s a louder bang above their heads. The question is forgotten and Darcy stares up at Bucky, eyes widening.

He squeezes her arms.

“Panic room. Now.”

Darcy tilts her head in confusion and he suddenly grabs her and they run together, hand in hand. They burst into the stairwell and run down, down, down. Darcy trips a few times and Bucky relents, picking her up.

Darcy would be mortified if it was any other situation but she wraps her legs around his waist automatically as he dashes down the steps, getting to the seventh floor and bursting into the corridor.

“I didn’t know we had a panic room,” Darcy pants, and he sets her down on her feet.

“Kinda above your security clearance, Lewis,” he replies.

“Oh, that’s good to know,” Darcy sasses. “That one of the most vulnerable dumbasses in this building has no idea about safe places.”

“You’re not that vulnerable,” Bucky mutters.

Darcy narrows her eyes at him, noting that he doesn’t refute she’s a dumbass. They stalk down the hallway with their hands joined and Bucky suddenly stops at a non-descript door and takes out his pass from his jeans back pocket.

The power must run independently from the rest of the building. The door unlocks and Bucky lets them in, pulling Darcy inside and shutting the door, a loud click ringing out to signify it’s locked.

Darcy glances around, seeing a small room with a little bed, a bookshelf and a cupboard and not much else. There’s a toilet in one corner that makes Darcy’s eyebrows hike.

“What now?”

“We wait,” Bucky says, taking out his knife and putting it on the bed.

He sits down with a sigh.

-

Darcy has her legs up against the wall, staring at the ceiling.

“How long has it been?”

“Twenty minutes,” Bucky replies, sounding tired.

Darcy has his knife in her hand, her phone in the other. She takes a couple selfies and uploads them to her Twitter feed.

_When your man wants to spice things up in the bedroom. Amirite, ladies?_

“We can play a game,” Darcy says, flipping the knife in her palm, feeling the weight of it.

“Let’s play the Quiet Game,” Bucky says, from behind his hands. He rubs his face a few times and Darcy nudges his knee with her shoulder, shooting him a glare.

“As if I don’t know about the Quiet Game. My mom always tried to make me shut up on road trips to my Aunt Linda’s with the Quiet Game.”

Darcy flips the knife a few more times, until Bucky’s hand darts out and catches it.

“You are so annoying,” he says, and Darcy sticks her tongue out at him.

His eyes are bright and she feels her stomach flip, her gaze returning to the ceiling.

“We could play Never Have I Ever.”

“I… know that game, and I’d lose. You know that,” Bucky replies, chuckling.

Darcy lets out a sigh. “Well, I’m bored. And hungry.”

“There’s food under the bed.”

Darcy pulls her legs down and rolls onto her stomach, leaning over the side of the bed and reaching under to find something. She feels a few cans stacked below and groans.

She lifts one up to read the label.

“Soup?”

“I’ve had worse,” Bucky says.

“I don’t doubt that for second,” Darcy replies, turning the can over to read the back. She pretends to retch. “Ew, no. I’d rather eat my own socks.”

She reaches down again, feeling around. There’s something rustling in a plastic package and she snatches it up. It’s only an empty packet and she tosses it aside, grumbling.

“Lemme see,” Bucky says, and he drops to the floor, searching under the bed.

Darcy takes the knife from where he left it on the mattress and starts playing with it again, recording a little clip on her phone. Bucky starts to take out several cans of soup, and then refried beans and other unappealing foods.

“Lewis.”

“What?”

“Stop.”

“Stop what?” Darcy says, distracted. She types out a new tweet about the panic room provisions.

Bucky’s holding a can of peaches in one hand, his other reaching out for his knife, but Darcy ignores him.

“Lewis, hey. Gimme –”

“I’m busy.”

“Lewis, _the apocalypse is happening, would you stop live tweeting about it for ten seconds and pass me that knife?_ Jesus fuck.”

Darcy’s eyes widen and she hands him the knife wordlessly. She stares at him as he uses the knife to puncture the top of the can before handing it to her.

She sucks a little nectar through the hole and Bucky watches her.

“Thank you,” she mumbles, and he rubs his face with his hands again.

They play the Quiet Game for a couple minutes, before Darcy hands him the can and sits up, putting her phone face down on the bed.

“How much longer?”

“Another half an hour or so,” he replies. “Panic room automatically locks for at least an hour.”

Bucky sits on the floor with his back against the bed, Darcy’s knee bumping his side when she scoots closer to him.

“Thanks for… making sure I’m safe.”

Bucky glances away. “No problem.”

Darcy knows he’s not great with compliments or gratitude of any kind. He glances at her knee at his eye level and then up at her shirt.

He gives her knee a little squeeze and Darcy thinks about her legs wrapped around his waist. She bites her lip.

“I’ll make you more comfortable.”

“Wha –?”

Bucky’s question falls away as Darcy suddenly pulls off the t-shirt and turns it inside out. Bucky averts his gaze but Darcy sees his eyes widen just the same. She pulls the Yankees shirt back on, the logo gone.

“I’m… less comfortable now,” Bucky mutters and Darcy begins to laugh.

He rubs the back of his neck and joins her.

“You’re somethin’ else, Lewis.”

“Guess it’s the apocalypse making me act goofy,” Darcy murmurs, leaning forward, her head above Bucky’s. “Or the flu outbreak.”

She knows it’s not appropriate to whip off your shirt without warning, but Bucky doesn’t seem exactly mad. She even sees him adjust himself, trying to be subtle about it from where he’s sitting.

“I think you’re goofy all the time,” he murmurs. He somehow makes it sound sweet.

Darcy scoots forward, then lands beside him on the floor, their shoulders bumping. She turns her head to face him, hesitant as she tilts her head.

“Bucky –”

He kisses her, one hand coming up to cup her face. She makes a vulnerable sound against his lips and kisses him back, their mouths slanting together.

He doesn’t break the kiss for quite some time, and when he does Darcy licks her wet lips, her heart hammering.

“What?” she asks, and he smiles at her.

“You _are_ dangerous, Lewis.”

She kisses him this time with a lot more heat, climbing into his lap.

-

There was no big conspiracy, just some looters because most of Manhattan was under the weather. They managed to cut the power and almost got into the armoury before Wanda flung them back into the street.

Darcy gets her own little card for the panic room.

Bucky gives her a new shirt, one that reads:

_I survived the apocalypse and all I got was this lousy t-shirt._

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> [my Tumblr](http://grimeysociety.tumblr.com/)


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